Phone line rentals can add up to be quite an expensive outgoing for many houses, especially as the prices always seem to be on the rise. Many people don’t even use their home phone for calls but are stuck needing one in order to access broadband services. If you actually look around though, there are plenty of deals available from providers once you move past the big name companies like BT, and if you’re already online or can get access to a computer the internet is a great place to compare cheap phone line deals.

In fact, companies like BT are normally the ones offering the most expensive deals overall, especially for people who rarely use their landline and prefer to use the free minutes on their mobile or Skype to make cheap or free calls at any time of the day. If you’ve currently got BT as your home phone provider you could save more than £60 per year on your line rental by switching to a different provider. If you’ve never switched before there’s a pretty good potential saving to be made on a yearly basis.

If you’re willing to pay up front there’s a number of providers that can offer much cheaper line rental, although obviously these deals are only worth it if you have the money available. Primus, for example, offers a free weekend and evening package for £7.99, far cheaper than BT (£10.00) The Post Office (£12.25) and Virgin (£12.24). Even calls tend to be cheaper on the cheap providers, with day time prices for primus at 3.00p a minute, compared to 7.00p a minute from BT and a staggering 8.68p a minute for Virgin.

There are other ways you can keep your home phone cheap that don’t involve switching over and take advantage of deals that may already be offered by your current company. Always make sure that you opt for paper-free billing. This will almost always provide a small discount but is obviously on useful if you have access to the internet where you can check your bills and pay without hassle. Remember that you should always pay your bills by monthly direct debit where available as it’s normally the only payment option that won’t incur more costs on a monthly basis.

If your phone company offers extra features that cost a certain amount every month, check to see if you can get a phone that can offer these features without having to pay out to your phone company. Some services, like Caller ID, need to be activated by your provider but other services like an answering phone don’t require payment if you have the right equipment. Check your latest bill and see what extras services you are paying for and remove any you aren’t using. Even if they aren’t very expensive they can add up over time.